Wrong and wrong

There are, we are told, two sides to every story.

And in the normal course of events, we tend to believe that one of those sides is right and one of them is not.

But sometimes, you can have two sides and both are misguided, off the mark, wrong. As it happens, the Jewish world in recent days has witnessed a mini-flurry of such occurrences.

For starters, Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, was in Israel for the opening of the new Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. While there, Annan made some stunning statements, stunning for their support and empathy for the Jewish people and the Jewish state, stunning because coming from the head of the U.N., they had a special power.

Among the things Annan said while in Israel was that "the Holocaust was not just a Jewish experience. It is an experience of great importance to the whole world and we have all drawn the lesson of it."

He also said the United Nations has the "sacred responsibility" to fight anti-Semitism, and that a "United Nations that fails to be at the forefront of the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism denies its history and undermines its future."

Among the things Annan did while in Israel was call for the inclusion of Israel in the U.N.'s Western European and Others group. Amazingly, sickeningly, Israel is the only one of the 191 members of the U.N. not to be included in one of the body's five regional groupings. Annan saying that has to end makes it very likely it will.

So far, all to the good.

Problem is that Annan did something else while in Israel. He made a visit to Yasser Arafat's grave. And while there, he laid a wreath.

Well, a lot of Jewish politicians, here and there, and a lot of Jewish organization officials, here and there, went nuts, were harshly critical of him doing that. New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, for instance said, "It is almost grotesque to travel to Israel to pay tribute to the six million Jews massacred in the Shoah and use the opportunity to pay tribute to a terrorist responsible for murdering thousands more."

Here, a case of both sides being in the wrong. Weiner is way out of line to call what Annan did "almost grotesque." Annan is, after all, the head of the U.N., has 191 countries to keep happy, must be seen as respecting all sides. It is unrealistic, indeed, ridiculous to think he wouldn't visit Arafat's grave while in the country.

This is exactly the kind of petty nonsense Jews waste so much energy and effort on, to no good purpose. We have so many important things to deal with, and yet so often we make a big tzimmes out of things that are meaningless.

That said, Annan was wrong for laying that wreath. You can go, bow your head, observe a moment of silence and you've done your duty. A wreath conveys a sense of honor, and the man who represents the ideals of the world should not be honoring a terrorist who never truly gave peace a chance, who indeed was the godfather of the terror we have all lived with since Sept. 11.
The U.N. stands for the best in humanity and that means it's OK to make choices, to say some things are not acceptable. Yes, anybody that attempts to represent all the countries of the world has to be pretty flexible about things, do some things many may not be wild about, but there are, at the same time, some lines that must not, should not be crossed.

Joseph Aaron is editor and publisher of the Chicago Jewish News.

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